


Alive

by setmeonfireplease



Series: The Story of the Tucks [3]
Category: Tuck Everlasting - Miller/Tysen/Shear & Federle
Genre: And Rose is very religious, And they're immortal, And very afraid, Another hint is that there's only one character who died, Ends with an E, Guess Who's Back, Hint it starts with a J, Miles has anger issues, idk anymore guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-30
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-07-19 04:19:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7344619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setmeonfireplease/pseuds/setmeonfireplease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose shrieks and Miles’ head snaps up. He can feel Jesse wriggling in his arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alive

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third part out of five. Why am I posting these all at once, you may ask? Well, I'm impatient and have no self control that's why.

Rose shrieks and Miles’ head snaps up. He can feel Jesse wriggling in his arms.

“Why are you holding me like this? Miles, let me go! Are you crying? Miles! What’s going on?” Jesse leaps from Miles arms and on to his feet. He whips around to glare at Miles, but his eyes widen in shock and horror.

“Whoa that’s a lot of blood! Is that your blood? Are you okay?” Jesse asks, sounding concern. Miles opens his mouth to answer, but nothing comes out. He’s almost completely sure that his heart has stopped.

“What in God’s name is this?” Rose asks in horror.

“What are you guys talking about?” Jesse asks, sounding confused. Miles feels anger filling him.

“Jesse, I’ll fucking kill you!” Miles screams as he jumps to his feet. Jesse is staring at him with wide fearful eyes as Miles grabs him by his shirt and slams his back into the trunk of the tree. He almost slips in the pool of blood.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jesse yells out.

“Is this one of your jokes? Is this your idea of a fucking joke? _Pretending to be dead_?” Miles is screaming in Jesse’s face. He’s never felt this angry – no, _furious_ – in his life. He feels like he may actually end up punching Jesse, and not even Rose could stop him. But, from the sound of her voice, she may not want to.

“ _What_?”

“You were pretending to be dead!”

“What are you talking about? I wasn’t dead! I was in the tree! I was climbing down! Then everything went dark and I woke up and you were holding me! And now you’re covered in blood! Whose blood is that?” Jesse is screaming too, but instead of angry he sounds confused and frightened.

“It’s your blood Jesse! What is it; _paint_?” Miles asks, pressing Jesse harder into the trunk.

“What do you mean that’s my blood?”

“How’d you do it?”

“How did I do what? What the hell are you talking about? Rose! What’s going on?” Jesse looks over Miles’ shoulder pleadingly, hoping Rose will help him out. There’s no answer.

“How’d you pretend to fall out of the tree without getting hurt? How’d you get the paint – I’m sorry, _blood_ – there without me noticing? How’d you hold your breath for so long? How’d you pretend to be dead?” Miles’ heart is pounding so hard that he can feel it in his feet. He can feel a headache coming on.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! Miles please, let me go! I swear I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Jesse has tears in his eyes. He’s never been good at staying strong during tense situations, or when he’s getting yelled at. Miles lets go of Jesse’s shirt and takes a step back. He feels like breaking something.

“What do you mean I wasn’t breathing? What do you mean that’s my blood? What do you mean I fell? What are you talking about?” Jesse looks so damn confused and earnest that Miles almost begins to believe him.

But what he was asking Miles to believe is implausible. It’s impossible. The idea that Jesse honestly has no clue what Miles is talking about means that Jesse had actually died. And if Jesse had actually died, then that meant that he has come back to life. And that is an implausible, impossible idea.

“You died Jesse. You were dead. You . . . this has to be the Devil’s work. This has to be. You had to have sold your soul . . . both of you!” Rose is finally speaking. Miles turns around in confusion.

“Both of us? What are you talking about?” Miles asks. Rose glares at him.

“That’s why you both look so young, isn’t it? You two traded your souls for your youth and an eternal life! And your parents too! They’re both in their late sixties and yet they haven’t aged a single day since I’ve met them!”

“Rosie, that’s crazy talk.”

“Don’t Rosie me! You look no older than twenty Miles! You act no older than twenty sometimes! And for all intents and purposes, Jesse is no more than a child! And how the hell do you explain what just happened?”

“It’s one of his stupid jokes!”

“That was no joke Miles and you know it! He was dead! You held his corpse yourself! You’re covered in his blood right now!” Rose looks as sick as Miles feels.

“ _I died_?” Both of their heads snap towards Jesse, who’s still pressed up against the trunk of the tree. He seems to have said it to himself more than anyone else, but it still caught their attention nonetheless.

Miles takes this moment to really look at Jesse. His arms are wrapped tightly around himself and he looks sick to his stomach. There’s blood drying on his face and in his hair. He’s short and skinny and he looks so, so young. Miles doesn’t need a mirror to know that he looks the same way as well.

Miles can lie and say he hasn’t been worrying about the fact that he still looks and acts like a hot headed twenty year old despite being nearly forty five. He can lie and say he hasn’t noticed that Jesse hasn’t grown any older than the young and foolish teenager he was when they first arrived in Tree Gap despite his fortieth birthday coming up.

He looks back at Rose and for the first time, he notices how old she’s gotten. Her blonde hair is graying, there are crows feet around her eyes, and wrinkles are beginning to set on other parts of her as well.

“Did you sell your soul to the Devil Miles?” Rose asks seriously.

“No!” Miles cries out in frustration. Rose huffs and rolls her eyes.

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m not! Jesse, tell her!” Miles turns to look at Jesse, but finds him sitting on the ground. He’s holding his knees to his chest and he’s breathing so heavily that Miles can hear it from two feet away.

“Jesse!” He cries out and quickly gets on his knees besides him.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?” He asks in concern. It was a stupid question, he obviously isn’t. But he isn’t sure what else he can say.

“I’m so . . . I don’t . . . did I really die?” Jesse asks with wide, scared eyes. There are tears running down his face and they are mingling with the blood caking on his face. Miles takes a deep breath.

“Yes . . . I think you really did.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please post a comment and have a wonderful day!


End file.
